Originally Written: March 14, 2019

So I just finished watching Monday Night Raw a little bit ago and I gotta say I thought it was a pretty alright show following the Fastlane PPV that went down last Sunday. I felt there were a whole lot more segments this week, than actual matches and if there were matches, they were really short ones, but let’s get to the highlights as well as some favorite and least favorite moments from this past episode of Raw.

Highlights: The Shield’s Farewell Opening Segment:

So we got to hear the Shield’s theme song one last time, which was good, a lot of different things were said in this segment, we had Roman, Dean & Seth open the show to give us their last farewells, it’s still hard to take in that after all these years with them being one of the biggest Stables in the WWE, we now are saying farewell to them as a team………….

We’ve seen them dominate and take out anyone that’s crossed their paths, we’ve seen them face off against the Wyatt Family, Evolution, individual superstars and even going against each other at one point……….they really changed and shook things up in the WWE and i’m gonna miss them, but of course I wish them all well on what they do in the future now that their main focus is on what they’re going to be doing next……..

Just a quick re-cap on what the segment was about:

We open Monday Night Raw with Roman, Dean & Seth heading to the ring, with Roman doing most of the speaking throughout the segment, he talks about how for the past few months he’s realized that life is too short and that nothing’s guaranteed, saying that if Fastlane was the last night ever………..

He didn’t have any regrets because he got to do what he loved with the people he loved. He then talks being on the road to Wrestlemania and all 3 of them having business to handle, with him getting back into singles action after being away from the ring for 5 months…………

He talked Dean not knowing what he’s going to be doing next, but how he wishes him luck with whatever he decides and talks Seth having the real business with him going against Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania next month, how he’s been chasing the dream for a long while now, but that he’ll go on and beat Lesnar at Mania and have the crowd chanting burn it down too when he does!!!

That was a quick sum up of the whole segment with the Shield in the ring together one last time…….I thought the segment was done really nicely and I didn’t say this in my Fastlane PPV review, but i’m glad that in their last match together they were victorious over Corbin, Lashley & McIntyre.

At the same time though it would’ve been shocking had it been the other way around and we’d have seen Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre & Bobby Lashley dominate the Shield last Sunday, that would’ve been a whole twist had that happen, and we would’ve had to sit and watch them boast about it every week and be all smug about too, but i’m glad we were able to get this outcome where they were able to say a proper farewell……

Once again thank you to Roman, Dean and Seth for bringing us great moments and matches in the WWE as the Shield, I wish you all the best of luck and well wishes on your next upcoming journey………..and just for old times sake I write you the famous opener line to the Shield’s theme song.

SIERRA. HOTEL. INDIA, ECHO, LIMA. DELTA…….SHIELD!!!!

Highlight: Seth Rollins & Paul Hayman’s Segment:

A little after the Shield’s segment, there was another segment within it, but it was after Roman & Dean had left the ring, leaving only Seth there where he talks about Fastlane and their match against Corbin, Lashley & McIntyre, as he was in the middle of talking about it he was interrupted by non other than Brock Lesnar’s advocate Paul Heyman…….

This segment was actually quite entertaining to me, we watch as Seth Rollins and & Paul Heyman have a bit of a back and forth on Brock Lesnar, with Heyman doing his job to big up Lesnar anytime he has a match, always sells it well too and then there’s Seth Freaking Rollins who felt the need to have a few rebuttals with Heyman about Lesnar…….

Asking him if the Lesnar, he’s talking about, is the same Brock Lesnar that dominated the Big Show, ran through Samoa Joe, took Braun Strowman to Suplex City and annihilated Bill Goldburg which left Heyman telling Seth he appreciated him doing his whole advocate thing for him……….

Then he asked him if that’s also the same Brock Lesnar who had a real tough time, going through Daniel Bryan, got pushed to his limits by the Phenomenal one AJ Styles and who was close to being beaten by Finn Balor, which made Heyman answer with a touché………leaving Seth to continue on by saying how Brock Lesnar seems to have a problem with guys like him, when it comes to his size, speed, agility, stature, quickness and style.

He then gives credit and shows appreciation to Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles & Finn Balor, but says that when it comes to beating the Beast that is Brock Lesnar, no one is uniquely suited for it then Seth Freaking Rollins…………he then let’s him know that he’s got 3 weeks to run his mouth, but when it’s time to go against Brock Lesnar, he’s taking the Universal Championship and bringing it back to Raw where it belongs every single week.

Heyman & Rollins continue to go back and forth, this was just a really good segment between the two, seeing Heyman lost for words after Seth calls him out on Brock not always getting an easy win over his opponents was the best, I really enjoyed this segment…………

Good Moment……..But Also A Little Underwhelming: Shelton Benjamin’s Return

Now in the same segment with Heyman and Seth talking about Brock Lesnar, we got a bit of a surprise guest on Raw in the likes of Shelton Benjamin (who is actually from Smackdown Live) where he ambushed Rollins from behind and landed a few German Suplexes to Seth during the promo segment………

I was surprised seeing Shelton Benjamin on Raw this past Monday, we hadn’t seen him for a good while, which i’m guessing was due to injury…………I know him and Gable were a team and they were a pretty decent team too, now Gable’s teaming with Bobby Roode which is fine, their a nice team as well……….I thought Shelton’s return was surprising, to be honest I actually thought it was Lio Rush at first attacking Seth, but then once I saw his face I thought “oh that’s Shelton”

However, even though I thought his return was good and unexpected, I felt it was also a little underwhelming at the same time……..and that’s only because you would think he’d get a bigger reaction from it, with him returning and all, but to me I didn’t feel like the reaction he got was the best reaction, it was still a good moment though, I just thought he could’ve gotten a little bit more of a better reaction from it.

We ended up getting a match between Rollins & Shelton, it was pretty alright the match. It was made over Raw’s first commercial break during the show, there was a small segment with Heyman where he talks about someone who actually knows Brock Lesnar introducing Shelton Benjamin to where Seth then challenged Shelton to a match and why we’re talking about it……….

There was a lot of good moments in this match we had Seth deliver a nice blockbuster move from the top rope to Benjamin, he then tried to hit his Blackout stomp finisher, but Shelton dodged it, he then tried to catch Seth with a german suplex, but he escaped.

Seth attempted to go for a dive outside the ring, but was caught by a knee to the face by Shelton who then goes for a pin, but Rollins kicks out, Seth then catches Benjamin with a slingblade and then later hits a move from off the top rope. Moving on to the closing parts of the match, Rollins hits two superkicks to Shelton, hits his finisher Blackout Stomp, pins him and wins the match………now I wouldn’t say this was the best match, however I did still enjoy it, they both gave each other a nice fight and there were some moments in the match that I actually enjoyed, it was pretty alright!!

Least Favorite: Bobby Lashley Becoming The New Intercontinental Champion……..

I’m not going to rant, i’m not gonna rant………however I will say, I don’t like that Bobby Lashley got the title back last Monday……….I didn’t realize how much feeling I had on Lashley being the new Intercontinental Champion until now………..I just don’t understand, why give Lashley the title back!? Why stop Finn’s reign!? when he just got it!!?…………

Let’s be honest here, I honestly didn’t think the match was that bad, I actually enjoyed the match between Lashley & Balor, there was some really nice moments during the match, but had Lio Rush not gotten involved and kept away from the time keepers area distracting Finn from the match, Lashley wouldn’t be champ………..

It’s makes no sense giving him back the title, I think Finn should’ve definitely kept the intercontinental championship for much longer than he did…………let’s move on though……….

Good Moment: Ronda Rousey’s Promo……….but The Highlight Dana Brooke…….

We all might have different opinions here and that’s completely fine, first let’s talk Ronda Rousey’s promo and segment discussing why she got Charlotte disqualified last Sunday at the Fastlane PPV………..so we learned that the reason Ronda DQ’d Charlotte, is because she wants to humiliate and embarrass both Charlotte Flair & Becky Lynch at the grandest stage of them all WrestleMania…………

Saying that she will expose and embarrass them and the WWE for the carney (carne) con artist that they are and how she is going to walk through both Becky & Charlotte and still come out Raw Women’s Champion. That was a brief sum up of her promo, but I thought that it was well done, I quite enjoyed Ronda Rousey this way, she really does play that persona well I gotta say…………

After Ronda was finished with her promo, she got an unexpected surprise when Dana Brooke came out to say a few words, she told Ronda that everyone’s heard enough of her venom, letting her know that she has nothing left to lose at this point and how she won’t let Ronda disrespect the WWE, The WWE Universe nor the women’s locker room.

She tells Ronda that she may not be a big time fighter, but how she loves WWE and the business, how she’s worked her tail off to gain the respect of the women’s locker room and prove she belongs in the WWE and how she fights everyday for a chance, yet never gets the time of day, let alone a match………..

She continues on by saying that even though she isn’t on tv and she isn’t a household name like Ronda Rousey, all she wants is a chance, tells her it’s a night after a PPV and that normally Ronda sets out an open challenge, she then let’s Ronda know who she is and that she accepts the challenge……….

Okay……….so Dana Brooke people, alright i’ll be honest here, at first I was going to say that Dana’s promo was good, however there was certain things about it that I thought was weird and I was going to say it could’ve been better………….BUT, and it’s a big but here (wow that sounded weird) ANYWAY!!!………I went back and watched it again, because I wanted to rewatch it and see if I still felt the same and boyyyyy let me tell you………

I didn’t……..I actually felt a whoooole different reaction to her promo……..I don’t think it could’ve gone any better than what she gave us this past Monday, Dana not that you’ll read this, but, I really felt that, I felt that so much, I had goosebumps and I even got all teary eyed, i’m not kidding that was my natural reaction, the second time I watched it, I thought her coming out unexpectedly and delivering that promo was super impressive, that was really good, at least I thought that was good……….

I feel like with that promo, she was told to go out there unexpectedly, because you can see even though she was determined, she was also pretty nervous on how that was going to go and I think that’s why she delivered that promo last Monday the way she did.

Again with my first reaction, I felt it could’ve been delivered different, but I also thought it was interesting and liked the fact that with it, I was still listening because she had me wanting to hear what she had to say, once she told Ronda we heard enough of your venom, that line alone, made me want to hear what she had to say…………..

I’m really glad I watched it again and that I didn’t go with my first reaction, normally I would, but with this, I felt I needed to watch and hear it one more time and i’m glad I did, because that was really good………..

Good job Dana, well done!!

P.S. Although her promo was great, Ronda attacked her afterward and slapped a referee while she was add it, when they tried to break up the fight, which she then got fined for the next day I believe………

Highlight: Alesiter Black & Ricochet

I don’t know if I already said this, but Ricochet & Aleister Black………they’re climbing up the roaster pretty quickly, even though they just arrived 3 weeks ago. (almost 4) When you look at these two, they seem like an unlikely pair, but watch them in the ring and you’ll see that they actually work pretty well together.

Both Aleister Black & Ricochet made their main roster debut on Feb 18, 2019 on both the red & blue brand known as Raw & Smackdown Live and since coming up to the main roster, they’ve been showing up the tag team division on both brands, well mainly the teams we don’t really see all that often………they’re the talk of the town at the moment or shall I say tag team division, being talked about more than the The Revival who are the Raw Tag Team Champions………..

Their also getting more of the opportunities then the rest of the tag team division and because of that, they now have a nice target on their backs with the other tag teams, but Ricochet & Black them now a team, are the ones to watch at the moment!!!

Different fighting styles these two have, as well as two different personalities, but they blend well together surprisingly!! They’ve been winning matches together for the few weeks they’ve been on the main roster, even though they didn’t get the tag titles at Fastlane last Sunday, they still technically haven’t lost as a team……….

These two are definitely on the radar and I know we’re going to continue to keep our eyes on them and I think we all know it’s not going to be long until they’re the new tag team champions.

Good Moment: Alexa Bliss Being This Years WrestleMania Host

You know when the host was being to be announced and they showed the video package for it, I thought it was going to be the Miz, because in the video they showed the Hollywood sign and I was like, “is Miz hosting WrestleMania!?” and then when they showed who it actually was, I wasn’t surprised………what can I say about this!?

I think that Bliss being the host, is actually a pretty good idea, I mean they brought moment of Bliss to life and it’s been going well for her so for them to chose Alexa Bliss to host Mania this year, I think it’s good, I actually think she deserves to host WrestleMania, i’m not a huge Alexa Bliss fan, but I don’t mind her, also her speech was quite entertaining.

She told us it was an honor for the WWE Universe and that finally WrestleMania will be hosted by the brightest star of them all herself, I look forward to seeing how her hosting goes next month it should be good!!!

Good Moment: Nia Jax & Tamina and Natalya & Beth Phoenix

Alright so last Monday, we got a match between Nia & Natalya, but before that match, Natalya did a pre match promo questioning who has her back in the WWE, telling Nia & Tamina that she doesn’t trust them or Ronday Rousey, but that she knows someone who does have her back and that person was none other than the Glamazon Beth Phoenix…………

We then had the match between Nia & Natalya, but it didn’t last that long due to it ending in a disqualification when Beth got involved and attacked Nia after Tamina got involved in the match, she then later went after Tamina and both her & Nia escaped the ring and walked backwards up the ramp heading backstage to where they ended up getting ambushed and attacked by Sasha Banks & Bayley to the point where the ref’s and WWE staff had to get involved and break up the fight.

Now I would have liked for the match between Nia Jax & Natalya to be a little longer than it was, but we all know that there’s going to be a match set up between Nia & Tamina Vs Natalya & Beth Phoenix at WrestleMania and I am looking forward to that, it’s gonna be an interesting one!!!

Good Moment: Triple H & Batista Face To Face:

This was the moment everyone was waiting for, Batista face to face with Triple H………..now this segment had it’s flawed pieces happening, mainly with Batista, but we’ll get to that soon……..Batista arrives to Monday Night Raw, Triple H heads to the ring and then the segment starts to begin…………now my first thought when we were waiting for Batista to come out was whether or not his theme would be the same or if they changed it………it was the same and it’s still a good tune, so that’s good.

Going back to what I said before, I felt if it wasn’t for Triple H keeping the segment from falling flat, it would’ve been a bit of a mess in my opinion………obviously with Batista being away from WWE for so long, it’s not really that much of a surprise that he’d be a little rusty on the mic.

He literally didn’t say anything for a good while, you saw he was going to, but he was also having trouble. It took Triple H to ask him if he was going to stand up on the stage looking like a nose ring model or if he was going to get in the ring and face him like a man, for him to then say something.

It was really funny, I couldn’t stop laughing, that was probably one of the best lines of the night if you ask me. Now i’m gonna sum up this whole segment for you guys okay, this was the whole segment here:

Batista: “Give me what I want”………..Triple H: “I’m not going to give you what you want”……….Batista: “Give me what I want”………Triple H: ‘I’m not giving you want you want”………Batista: If you don’t give me what I want, I will keep hurting everyone you love”………Triple H: “I’m not giving you what you want, so get in this ring and face me like a man so I can give you what you deserve which is a beatdown in this ring or we can do this on my terms and go where you are and i’ll just hurt you from the stage.”

Batista: “Nope not doing things on your terms, it’s going to be on my terms, so just give me what I want”…….Triple H: “You think just because you’re a Hollywood movie star, you have the right to demand things and get things handed to you, you quit remember!? you walked away” so for the last time, i’m not giving you, what you want”……….

Batista: “Yeah I left, but you know why I left!? It was to get as far away from you as possible, because you were holding me down, you kept looking and talking down to me and kept shutting me out, it’s been years, just give me what I want………..you know what it is I want, you just won’t give it to me, because you’re not in control, you know what it is and you know we all want it, so just do it………..give me a match at WrestleMania, I want a match against you at WrestleMania.”

Triple H: You want a match against me at Mania!? Fine you got it!!”

That was pretty much the whole segment summed up not kidding, that was everything that they said in the segment……….originally I started to just write it all out in a serious manner, but I thought it’d be better to just sum it up the way it was when I watched it.

Also if you didn’t notice in the photo Batista ended up bringing some security with him when he arrived to the arena, which Triple H asked if the security was for him, Batista tells him that it’s actually for his protection (himself) because he’s not stupid and that he’s learned and has also paid attention to the two dirtiest players in the game Triple H & Ric Flair………….

Quick recap: On Feb 25th’s episode of Raw, Batista returned and the reason for this face to face, is because Batista attacked Ric Flair on his return back to WWE, but it was on Ric Flair’s 70th birthday celebration and Triple H is really close with Ric Flair, then we had Triple H call out Batista on March 3rd’s episode of Raw because he didn’t show up after the attack on Ric Flair, which is why we had this segment……….

You would think based off their back and fourth, that what Batista wanted was going to be extremely important, but it just turned out that all he really wanted was a match against Triple H at WrestleMania, which Triple H accepted……….once he accepted Batista said that that’s all he ever wanted,

To end his career, wrestling career, on his terms as well as Triple H’s career……..Triple H not letting him get the last word, tells Batista that come WrestleMania, he better find whatever scrap is left of Batista’s persona the animal and he better hope there is some left, because at WrestleMania it maybe on his terms, but the match will be on Triple H’s telling him to bring everything he’s got, because at the grandest stage of them all, the match will be a no Hold’s Barred Match………..

Now I know this was a personal thing, but did we really need all that fuss just to be told we’re getting a match between Triple H & Batista at WrestleMania!?………….that was quite a segment, some flaws here and there, but overall I still enjoyed it and I look forward to seeing how this match turns out.

Highlight: Kurt Angle Announcement

So there was an in ring segment last Monday on Raw with Kurt Angle where he talked about his future in the WWE, he tells us the story of when he left his hometown Pittsburg to go to the Olympics where he won a gold medal with a broken freaking neck, which then lead him working for the WWE, where he traveled the world and competed for 20 years, but that no matter where he went Pittsburg was always his hometown.

He then told us that at WrestleMania, he will be competing in his farewell match, thanking everyone in the WWE, everyone he’s shared a locker room with and gave a special thanks to the WWE universe for making it fun for him and how he had the time of his life for the years he’s been in the WWE.

This was a bit of an emotional segment, at least for me, we’ve seen Kurt wrestle for so many years and to know that at WrestleMania he’ll be competing in his farewell match, is insane…………two different announcements in this Raw episode, we had the Shield disband and say farewell and then we learned that we’ll be getting another farewell from Kurt at WrestleMania next month……….

I wonder if he’ll still be apart of the WWE somehow or if he’s leaving all together, after WrestleMania!? On a good note, we didn’t have to wait for him to have that match at Mania, because he gave us one last match in his hometown before that match, his last match on Raw was against Apollo Crews who is actually a really big fan of Kurt Angle……..

Now the match between Apollo & Kurt, wasn’t that long of a match, however it was still enjoyable!! There were a few nice moment during this match, Angle hit 3 german suplexes to Apollo, Crews hit Kurt with a standing moonsault, he then tried to go for a frog splash move, but Kurt dodges it and lands his finisher the Angle slam winning the match.

Again not that long of a match, but it was still a pretty decent match for what it was. Not sure who his opponent is going to be at WrestleMania, but I look forward to watching the match as well as Angle compete in his last match before we finally say farewell to him in the ring.

Pre Match, Match & Segment: Originally we were meant to get Roman Vs Corbin, in Roman’s first match back since everything he’s been through, it was meant to be the main event I believe, but instead of that match taking place, we had McIntyre come in and ambush Roman and even though Roman did try to fight back, McIntyre continues to brutally attack him………

He hit his finisher twice to Roman, the second time he hit it though, had Roman hitting the ring post a little too hard, to where it was hard for him to focus on anything…………the WWE medical staff had to go and check on Roman and Seth Rollins even came out to make sure he was alright.

Roman was trying to seem like he was fine, but he wasn’t obviously, Seth even said to him that if he’s not cool, it’s fine to say he’s not cool and for him to take it easy………..Seth even helped him backstage because he was having a little trouble walking properly…………..

We then head backstage where Seth and Dean helped Roman get to the medical staff room to get checked out and makes sure he was doing alright, Dean so pissed off at Drew McIntyre, runs into Triple H after helping Roman to the medical staff room and demanded a match with McIntyre, telling him to make it a falls count anywhere match………

Least Favorite: Dean Ambrose Vs Drew McIntyre (Falls Count Anywhere Match

This match……….now although, I thought the match was alright, the reason this is my least favorite is because this match was most likely, hopefully not, but most likely Dean’s last match, now there was some pretty nice moments during the match, when it started Dean went straight after McIntyre, they ended up fighting up the ramp and in the crowd, there was a moment when Drew threw Dean against the walls within the crowd………

Then we had a moment where Dean low blowed McIntyre, Drew tried to throw Dean on the announce table, but Dean ended up throwing him on the table instead, McIntyre gets payback and catches Dean with a low blow he then stabbed Dean with a pencil that was on the announce table on the side of his face, which was a little brutal……….

Closing parts of the match, well the rest of the match had McIntyre in control, Dean did try to fight back, but McIntyre just had the upper hand over him, he brought Dean to the stairs next to the commentary table, where he then put his hand and head through the railing of the small stairs, hits his finisher……….and wins the match………

I really wanted Dean to win this, it would’ve been so nice for him to win this match, I felt he needed to win more than McIntyre did, especially if that was his last match in the WWE, it wasn’t even a bad match, I did enjoy it, I just would’ve preferred Dean get the win, it’s been too long since he’s properly had a good match and it’s been longer since he’s actually won one too, the way Dean’s career been in the WWE, it sucks because you know that it could’ve been a whole lot more better, had they used him properly……

I’m hoping that wasn’t his last match, last match (that was intentional) because if he’s going to leave, at least have him have some kind of proper feud before he officially goes, I think he seriously deserves that…………

Final Thoughts: I thought this was a pretty alright Raw after the Fastlane PPV, we’ve got some surprising announcements with Kurt Angle telling us about his farewell match at WrestleMania……..

We got to see The Shield’s farewell, Batista & Triple H face to face, that awesome back & forth with Heyman & Rollins and even an impressive promo with Dana Brooke, a lot happened some good moment, and some alright moments overall though, it was a pretty alright Raw I gotta say………..

What were your favorite moments from Monday Night Raw, Let me know in the comments below!!

All The Love ❤ ❤

~Lexa~